Packaging is one of the final steps in the process of manufacturing semiconductor chips. In packaging, a fabricated semiconductor chip is mounted within a protective housing. At the present moment, the art of semiconductor chip technology has evolved far more rapidly than the integrally related technology of packaging the semiconductor chips. The packaging requirements of the newer, smaller, more powerful semiconductor chips are quickly progressing beyond the capabilities of traditional packaging technology and the conventional materials and designs presently utilized are fast becoming obsolete. The packaging demands of new semiconductors require configurations to accommodate increasing numbers of electrical interconnections, space constraints due to decreasing system size, reduction in costs, improved reliability, and increasing heat transfer capabilities.
The need to adequately transfer heat out of increasingly smaller semiconductor packages and more compact housing arrangements has spawned significant interest in the development of new packaging materials and more thermally efficient configurations. Currently, semiconductor packaging commonly utilizes the art of attaching an external heatsink to improve the heat transfer characteristics of many chip packages which, by themselves, do not adequately transfer heat away from the semiconductor chip. However, with decreasing size, increasing heat concentration and high density packaging of new semiconductor chips the standard addition of an external heatsink often is no longer practical, sufficiently thermally efficient or effective.
A significant limitation on the operation and reliability of semiconductor chip packages is the efficient and effective extraction of heat. It is desirable to provide the chip packages with heat transfer mechanism to maintain them within a predetermined safe operating temperature range.